Jewelry chains serve principally a decorative function to be used in a variety of manners. Jewelry chains may be used as garment belting or, more commonly, they are worn by the individual in the form of necklaces and bracelets. Typically, chains consist of a series of links often manufactured by hand and require patience, dexterity, and an artistic flair.
Various jewelry chains comprising plural loop elements and methods of assembly have been proposed in the past. For example, in Schoeninger U.S. Pat. No. 1,891,056 a thin, stamped, sheet metal link having three dome-shaped elements at the apexes of a triangle must be turned sideways to be inserted into a sequential link, and one dome element on a single tab is then bent back over a portion of the other two domes. The chain can be taken apart by rebending the one domed element, and any reverse bending of the chain could cause that dome element to be partially bent upward, disturbing its appearance and presenting a means to snag a garment.
Sweeney U.S. Pat. No. 1,797,968 illustrates a butterfly chain in which a pair of spring steel antenna wires are passed through a hole in the body of the subsequent link. The wires are crossed and can be pressed together to easily disengage them from the subsequent link. Since precious metal does not have the spring quality of steel, this assembly is not amenable to fine jewelry. The Philmus U.S. Pat. No. 2,789,380 and Quisling U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,923 chains are both designed so that the link consists of a shaft instead of a loop. In addition, the individual link element is not completed until it is joined to another link by forming a loop or eye around the shaft of the subsequent link.
Both Vanderveld U.S. Pat. No. 1,238,847 and Hodges U.S. Pat. No. 1,314,747 relate only to repair links. In Vanderveld, a head is formed after a shaft is passed through a loop in a rivet-type upsetting of metal process. In Hodges, the repair link is for tire chains, not an ornamental chain, and provides a T-shaped head that is bent to prevent disengagement of a subsequent link.
Accordingly, there is a need for an attractive jewelry chain which is simple to manufacture.